By R. Braiden Trapp
Jack and Jill Graduate
Longtime sole proprietor of and teacher at Jack and Jill Kindergarten, Ethel Medina, turned 100 years old Oct. 4. Her family celebrated with her at the Stearns History Museum in Sartell, Minn. in August with a ride in a 1908 Maxwell car, restored by the family for the occasion.
Medina was born and raised in Nebraska. She married Candido (C.E.) Medina and moved to New Mexico in 1931, according to the Sartell newspaper Citizen Times.
She taught in mission schools until starting Jack and Jill and graduated many local students during her long tenure. She was Española’s woman of the year in 1969.
In a letter she said she remains very busy canning and freezing everything her daughter-in-law brings from her garden. She bakes bread and pies for fund-raisers and quilts for charities.
“Española Hospital gets one or two baby quilts each year but I don’t know how much longer these old hands will last,” she wrote.
Former graduates wishing to congratulate Medina may send a card and some catch-up news to Ethel Medina, 520 1st St NE Apt. 89, Sartell, MN 56377.